USA > Maryland > The Maryland line in the Confederate Army, 1861-1865 > Part 12
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In a measure General Heth's attack was not a success, although he inflicted heavy loss upon the enemy in killed and wounded, and brought off four hundred prisoners. But Heth determined to make one more effort to regain the lost position, and an attempt was to be made to gain Warren's right and rear, and thus compel him to retire.
After an hour's rest, the Second Maryland was marched across the country
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toward Petersburg. The point to be attacked was not over half a mile away, but to reach which it was necessary to make a detour of over five miles. It was a most ·tedious march, owing to the crowded condition of the road, and the fact that it was made in the night, and it was not until 6 o'clock in the morning (October I) that Heth reached the point from which he intended to deliver his attack upon Warren's right and rear.
A rest of a couple of hours was first necessary, when the battalion formed line of battle in readiness to advance.
At length the command was given, and in beautiful order the battalion moved forward under a heavy fire, drove the skirmishers from the works in their front, crossed the felled timber and entered the woods. Continuing obliquely to the right, through the woods, after crossing the Squirrel Level road the battalion was run into by Stone's Mississippi Brigade, which was moving up obliquely at a brisk pace, and it was thrown into considerable confusion.
However, this was but momentary, as the battalion formed again speedily behind some buildings upon the right of the road, and opened fire upon the line of breastworks in their immediate front.
All day long did Heth wrestle with the enemy, but in vain. His position was a strong one, and he outnumbered Heth two to one.
At night the whole Confederate force withdrew, when the Second Maryland returned to the trenches they had occupied previously, having suffered in the two battles (Peebles' farm and Squirrel Level road) a loss of fifty-three men in killed and wounded, a terrible loss out of less than three hundred men, and it attests the desperation with which the battalion charged and fought during those trying two days.
Following are the lists of casualties at Peebles' farm and Squirrel Level road :
BATTLE OF PEEBLES' FARM.
CAPTAIN FERDINAND DUVALL COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Captain Ferdinand Duvall, severely.
COMPANY A .- CAPTAIN GEORGE THOMAS COMMANDING.
KILLED - Corporal S. Pinckney Gill, George Deatore.
WOUNDED - Captain George Thomas, severely : Second Lieutenant William P. Zol- linger, slightly ; Privates John Goodwin, severely ; Frederick Huster, severely ; William A. Hance, slightly.
MISSING - Private William II. Hubbard, supposed to have been killed.
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COMPANY B .- SECOND LIEUTENANT CHARLES B. WISE COMMANDING.
KILLED - Private John H. Junger.
WOUNDED - Sergeants John G. Barber, slightly ; Whittingham Hammett, slightly : Privates Robert Beall, severely ; Charles J. Foxwell, slightly.
COMPANY C .- SERGEANT GEORGE PROBEST COMMANDING.
KILLED - Private Richard T. Onion.
WOUNDED - Sergeant George Probest, slightly ; Privates William Grace, severely ; Thomas L. Mitchell, severely.
CAPTURED - Private John T. White.
COMPANY D .- SERGEANT ISAAC SHERWOOD COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Privates David Hammett, slightly ; W. Beale Owings, severely ; John Spence, severely.
MISSING - Philip Lipscomb.
COMPANY E .- SERGEANT WILLIAM HEAPHY COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Corporal Benjamin F. Amos, severely ; Privates John Keppleman, severely ; Michael Noonan, severely.
CAPTURED- Private Martin O'Hallon.
COMPANY F .- CAPTAIN A. J. GWYNNE COMMANDING.
KILLED - Private Abel Hurley.
WOUNDED - Captain A. J. Gwynne, slightly ; Privates John H. Claggett, severely ; John W. Claggett, slightly ; Thomas J. Webb, severely ; Hillary Cretin, severely.
COMPANY G .- SECOND LIEUTENANT GEORGE BRIGHTHAUPT COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Lieutenant George Brighthaupt, mortally ; Corporal William Lord, severely ; Private Robert Mumford, slightly.
CAPTURED - Sergeant Michael Hallohan, Privates Jesse Waters, Michael Elligett.
COMPANY H .- CORPORAL PATRICK HEENAN COMMANDING.
KILLED - Corporal Patrick Heenan.
WOUNDED - Private Edward Welch. severely.
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BATTLE OF SQUIRREL LEVEL ROAD.
CAPTAIN JOHN W. TORSCH COMMANDING.
COMPANY A .- SERGEANT CHARLES E. MAGUIRE COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Private William T. Bailey, severely.
COMPANY B .- SECOND LIEUTENANT CHARLES B. WISE COMMANDING,
WOUNDED -- Private William Herbert, mortally.
COMPANY C .- CORPORAL C. M. CLAYTON COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Privates John M. Blumenauer, severely ; Charles Hammond, severely ; Frank Wheatley, mortally.
COMPANY D .- SERGEANT ISAAC SHERWOOD COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Sergeant Isaac Sherwood, severely.
COMPANY E .- SERGEANT SAMUEL KIRK COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Privates John Brown, severely ; William Gwynn, slightly.
COMPANY F .- SERGEANT JOHN W. POLK COMMANDING. WOUNDED - Charles A. Hoge, mortally.
COMPANY H.
WOUNDED - Private James Powers, slightly.
While the events just narrated were transpiring on General Lee's right, others of no less importance were taking place on his left. Grant had evidently begun to appreciate the fact that Lee's army was numerically much inferior to his own, and stung to the quick at the many repulses he had met with since he crossed the Rapidan, he determined upon a more aggressive course. His successes at Peebles' farm and Squirrel Level road had convinced him that he should avail
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himself more frequently of his vast preponderance of numbers, and thus by attrition accomplish what he never could accomplish by strategy. In Lee's hands, with anything approaching the proportions of an army under his command, Grant was but a pigmy, and well he knew it. Attrition, therefore, was henceforth to be the policy of the Federal commander, and in this he showed his wisdom, but it was an unmilitary one, and cannot reflect creditably upon his reputation as a great military chieftain. Grant, therefore, began to pinch Lee harder wherever it was possible. He captured Fort Harrison, a work of much importance, and one which Lee in vain attempted to recapture.
Slowly, but surely, the Confederate Army was dwindling away. Hundreds of desertions were occurring every day, and the inevitable was not far off. Men were starving, and were naked in the trenches. The sufferings of the poor fellows were beyond endurance. Their families were appealing to them for relief ; their wives and children were at home reduced to gaunt spectres, and these appeals caused many a brave man, who had faced the enemy upon a hundred bloody battle-fields, to leave his comrades and wend his way to his desolate home. Their excuse was that all was over, and now they had a sacred duty to perform in protecting their loved ones. To some this seemed akin to desertion, but there certainly was some justification for the act.
These numerous desertions entailed additional duties upon the Second Mary- land. It had been reduced to little more than two hundred men, but these two hundred men were expected to do the duty of a regiment. So far but one desertion had occurred from its ranks, and that was the only one that ever did occur. They were, therefore, kept almost constantly upon picket duty, for the Marylanders could be trusted where others could not be.
Thus the weary, dismal winter passed slowly away. There had been during that time sonie welcome visitors to the camp of the Second Maryland, and among them Colonel George P. Kane, of Baltimore. He was shocked at the condition of the men, and he was moreover surprised at their cheerfulness under such trying circumstances. When he left the boys he promised then each a new uniform and a change of underclothing. He kept his promise, and on the 4th of March, 1865, they arrived. Many a "God bless you, Colonel Kane," went up from those poor boys as they threw aside the miserable rags in which they were clad and donned their confortable suits.
But to go back a few weeks : February 5, 1865, was a memorable day in the annals of the Second Maryland. About 10 o'clock of that day the brigade, now under command of Colonel William McComb, was moved to the right near Hatcher's Run, where it joined heavy bodies of troops. At 3 o'clock P. M. the whole force crossed their breastworks, and passing over a broad open space between the two picket lines, and obliquely to the right, entered a swampy woods,
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where the enemy's skirmishers were encountered and driven into their works some distance beyond.
The Second Maryland held the centre of the attacking line and advanced to within twenty yards of the enemy's fortifications -nearer than any other troops in the column, but the brigades to the right and left fell back, leaving McComb's command in a precarious position. The order was given to lie down, though many of the men of the Second Maryland availed themselves of the numerous stumps to keep up the fire. It was here that Lieutenant Charles W. Hodges, of Company C. acting Adjutant, was shot through the head and instantly killed. In the death of Lieutenant Hodges the battalion lost one of the hest officers it had ever had. A Christian gentleman, kind to all, and fearless in the discharge of his duty, he was universally beloved.
The first attacking column having failed to make any impression upon the enemy's works. Evans was ordered up with his division, but he, too, failed, as did Mahone, when at nightfall McComb fell back to the works from which he had started. Again were the Confederates unsuccessful in their offensive operations against the enemy's strong works.
Following is a list of casualties in the Second Maryland at the battle of Hatcher's Run :
COMPANY A .- LIEUTENANT W. P. ZOLLINGER COMMANDING.
WOUNDED - Private Benjamin R. Jennings.
COMPANY C.
KILLED - First Lieutenant Charles W. Hodges, Acting Adjutant.
COMPANY F .- FIRST SERGEANT THOMAS O. HODGES COMMANDING
KILLED - Corporal Washington Martin.
COMPANY G .- CORPORAL HENRY A. MUMFORD CON MANIUINI
KILLED - Frederick A. Wingate. * WOUNDED Private John G Dass MISSING - Corporal Henry A. Mumford.
COMPANY H .- ATTACHED TO COMPANY G.
KILLED - Private James O'Brien.
* Frederick A Wingate was a volunteer in the fight, his time having long expired, but he would not ask for his discharge, which he could have received, but he preferred to remain with his Company.
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CHAPTER VIII.
It was the latter part of March, and General Lee determined to put into execution, if possible, a plan that he had long before resolved upon. That he could no longer remain at Petersburg was becoming every day more painfully evident. Grant with his overwhelming army, now further augmented by the arrival of Sheridan with ten thousand cavalrymen, was fast closing in upon Lee. Could the latter but unite with Johnston, then moving through North Carolina, something might be done. The war was becoming enormously expensive to the North, owing to the vast armies it was necessary to keep in the field, and the people were becoming clamorous for peace. Could the war be prolonged one year by uniting the armies of Lee and Johnston, and by skillful manœuvering a crushing defeat could be administered to Grant, a recognition of the Confederacy might be effected. It was, indeed, a forlorn hope, but General Lee was not satisfied to surrender his army without making one more effort in a cause for which he and the brave men around him had battled for almost four years.
We will not give here a detailed account of the operations around Petersburg preliminary to its evacuation by the Confederates, but will follow those movements with which the Second Maryland was associated.
On April Ist Captain John W. Torsch, in command of the battalion, received the following order :
HEADQUARTERS MCCOMB'S BRIGADE, April 1, 1865
Captain Torsch, Commanding Maryland Battalion :
Captain :- You will report with your battalion, under arms, at once, at the chapel of General Davis' Brigade.
BY COMMAND OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM McCOMB.
JOHN ALLEN, A. A. G.
At 2 o'clock A. M. Captain Torsch repaired to the point designated, where he found three other battalions, and all had been assembled to attempt the recapture of some rifle pits taken from Cook's Brigade several days before.
Before daylight the men were ordered to quietly steal over their own works, and as noiselessly as possible approach the enemy. This was done with suppressed breaths, when at a signal agreed upon the different battalions rushed forward to take the pits in their respective fronts.
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The following graphic description of what followed is given the author by Sergeant Daniel A. Fenton of Company G :
In the charge we obliqued slightly to the left, and hit the enemy fairly on his left. They were taken by surprise, and some of them jumped out of the pits and escaped, whilst others were captured and sent to the rear. We at once began to change the front of the ritle pits, using our hands and bayonets to dig the earth and arrange the pits for our defense.
The firing soon ceased and an oppressive stillness prevailed, and we anxiously awaited the coming of daylight. We did not know then that we would still more anxiously await the coming of night.
Slowly daylight began to appear. It never came so slowly before, to our excited imag- inations. Had the troops to our right and left been as successful as ourselves ? God grant they had. Anxiously we peered to the right and left through the approaching light. Suddenly a voice from one of the boys with brighter vision than the rest of us was heard : "My God ; there are the Yanks !" And, sure enough, we were flanked at both ends. The rest of our contingent had utterly failed to take the pits in their front, and we were in " a hole," or, rather a series of holes, sure enough.
As soon as we realized the situation, some of the boys jumped out of their pits and rushed at the enemy so uncomfortably near, and thus we extended our line five or six pits.
A hot fire was at once opened, and kept up at intervals for several hours. About 10 o'clock A. M. our cartridges began to give out, and those who had them to spare threw them from one pit to another.
On looking back at our works about this time we saw they were alive with men, and a good deal of excitement seemed to prevail. And then we could see the muzzles of brass cannon protruding. Surely something was being done for our relief. But we must have ammunition before that relief arrives. "Who will go back to the works and procure it ?" is asked by Captain Torsch. "I will, Captain." said Lee Goldsborough, a veteran who never missed a battle in which either the First or Second Maryland were engaged from the first Manassas to Appomattox.
Like a deer, he started on his perilous errand with two haversacks, and rushed into a gully a short distance away. The enemy opened fire upon him the instant he emerged from his pit, but we soon put a stop to that. He was next seen crawling along the ground like an Indian, and then, as the ground was favorable, he would spring to his feet and go like the wind, until at last he reached the works and bounded safely over them.
" But will he get as safely back ?" is the question on every lip. " If not we are gone, sure !" After a brief interval his familiar figure is seen to recross the works, dragging something with him. With breathless anxiety we watch him as he takes the same precautions as before for his safety. Sometimes crawling, and sometimes running, he at length sprang into his pit with two haversacks full of cartridges. You should have seen how these cartridges were thrown from pit to pit.
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The first words the brave boy uttered were : "Oh ! Pshaw ! you are not going to be captured ; the boys back there will not let them capture you. They can't come out of their fort, for General McComb has brought up all the artillery possible, and will open on them if they show themselves ; but he says we must stay here until night !"
Well, we stayed there all day, and that day was four years long. But night came at last - it always does, and you should have seen how the boys crawled out of their holes. And when we got within our works you should have heard that rebel yell !
And what do you think they told us when we got back - and don't you think we should have felt complimented ? Well, it seems that when General McComb learned that our little battalion alone had succeeded in carrying that part of the line assigned to them, and that the rest of the attack was a failure, he was much worried. When daylight showed him our dangerous position he at once sent for General Harry Heth (who, by the by, was in command at the time of A. P. Hill's Corps), and upon that General's arrival McComb pointed out the situation in which we were placed. General Heth at once expressed his determination to prevent the capture of the battalion, saying : "Those men are too gallant to allow of it," and he ordered up three batteries to be brought to cover that portion of the picket line we occupied, or, you might say, the rifle pits. These were the guns we had seen, for we had left no artillery in the works.
That we were sleepy, you can rest assured, after our experience, and our sleep was long and restful.
But this detention in the rifle pits all day brought about a disaster that the Second Maryland could ill afford in its then depleted condition. Lieutenant Thomas Tolson had been sent out on picket the day before with thirty-two men. Captain Torsch from his position in the rifle pits could not recall him, as was his intention, and by an attack by the enemy in force Tolson and his command were captured.
At daylight on the morning of April 2, 1865, the battalion was ordered to form. There was an indescribable something in everyone's presence that portended of evil. What could it be ? It was true, the soldiers of Lee's army had revolved the situation in their minds more than once, but then as long as " Mar's Bob " was there all seemed right. But " Mar's Bob " could not build up armies without material, and, alas ! that once glorious army was fast dwindling away through desertion and casualties.
It seemed to those devoted troops that second day of April morning that the whole Federal Army had been let loose. Everywhere was heard the roar of artil- lery and the rattle of musketry. That handful of men composing the Army of Northern Virginia was now but a pigmy battling with a giant ; and still that pigmy had not been of much greater proportions for many months, and yet the giant had not before ventured an attack along the line. But the end was fast approaching, and the end was as glorious as the beginning.
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In this whirl of excitement the Second Maryland seemed to be ubiquitous. It was first ordered here, and then there, and, although its physical strength was not great, the example it set and the moral effect of its prompt and immediate obedience to orders made an impression.
Finally General McComb ordered Captain Torsch to hold a certain line of works, " and I will try to form the brigade on you." It was the last order given the Second Maryland by General McComb. The battalion formed in line, and some of the men (assisted by a few men of the battery) ran two guns of Purcell into position and opened a fire of grape and cannister upon the approaching enemy, then not over three hundred yards distant.
But that avalanche of men pressed on with resistless energy and were soon swarming inside the Confederate works. McComb's Brigade seemed at sea, and the only command intact in it was the Second Maryland. Foot by foot they resisted the encroachment of the enemy ; but such an unequal contest could not long endure. Fiercely the contest waged, and muskets were clubbed and crashed into human skulls, but all in vain. Captain Ferd. Duvall, with Lieutenants Polk, Zollinger, Byus and Wise, with about thirty men, were unable to escape from the works, and were captured. The remainder escaped in two different squads, one under Captain Torsch, and the other under nobody, but the latter, meeting remnants of the Seventh and Fourteenth Tennessee Regiments (a portion of their old brigade ) united with them, and made for the north bank of the Appomattox River, which all succeeded in attaining by means of two flat-bottomed boats found along the river.
This remnant of the brigade rested that night after a march of eight or ten miles, and a weary lot they were.
On the morning of the 3d this fragment of a once famous brigade assembled and determined upon some sort of organization. L'pon looking over the brave little band of Maryland boys it was discovered that there were twenty-three muskets present, and not a commissioned officer. Who had escaped from that wretched fort was to them an uncertainty ! but it was hoped before the day had passed to ascer- tain fully the situation in which the battalion was placed. Daniel .A. Fenton, of Company G. the ranking non-commissioned officer, but a gallant soldier, then took command. Captain Torsch, however, soon came up, and the weary march continued until that fatal 9th day of April 1865.
But we will not harrow the feelings of the reader by going into details of the sufferings and privations and uncomplainingly endured by those left of the once glorious Army of Northern Virginia. When Amelia Court House was reached and the rations that all had expected to meet there were not found, these famished and footsore men only expressed bitter disappointment. but the thought of giving up the struggle never entered their minds.
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Thus from Petersburg to Appomattox they dragged their weary and emaciated bodies, fighting by day and by night the hosts that had enveloped them. But, alas ! the end was at hand - the end came.
The scene that ensued when these heroes of so many battles were called upon to lay down their arms can never be described by human pen. Brave men wept like children, and tore their hair in the delirium of their grief, and tears coursed freely down the bronzed cheeks of the great chieftain as he witnessed the affection and devotion of his children.
" Go to your homes and be good citizens," he said to them ; but where were those homes to be found ? The torch of the incendiary had been there in their absence, and but little had been left. And where were the survivors of the Second Maryland to go ? They were denied this poor privilege by the fanatical set in their native State, and wandered for months through Virginia, partaking of the little left her noble people, but that little was freely bestowed.
Following is General Lee's last order to his troops :
HEADQUARTERS ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA, APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, April 10, 1865.
General Orders No. 9.
After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them, but feeling that valor and devotion could accomplish nothing that would compensate for the loss that must have attended a continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past services have endeared them to their countrymen.
By the terms of the agreement, officers and men can return to their homes and remain until exchanged. You will take with you the satisfaction that proceeds from the conscious- ness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merciful God will extend to you His blessing and protection.
With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.
[SIGNED.]
R. E. LEE, General.
Official :
[SIGNED.]
O. LATROBE, Lt .- Col. & A. A. G.
[SIGNED.]
R. H. FINNEY, A. A. G.
[SIGNED.]
P. G. JOHNSON, A. A. A. G.
To Captain John IV. Torsch, Commanding Second Maryland Infantry.
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The following extract from General Lee's final report to President Davis announcing the surrender is interesting :
His Excellency Jefferson Davis :
Mr. President :- It is with pain that I announce to Your Excellency the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. . Upon arriving at Amelia Court House on the morning of the 4th with the advance of the army and not finding the supplies ordered to be placed there, nearly twenty-four hours were lost in endeavoring to collect in the country subsistence for men and horses. This delay was fatal and could not be retrieved. . . . On the morning of the 9th . there were 7,892 organized infantry with arms, with an average of seventy-five rounds of ammunition per man. I have no accurate report of the cavalry, but believe it did not exceed twenty-one hundred effective men. The enemy was more than five times our numbers. If we could have forced our way one day longer, it would have been at a great sacrifice of life, and at its end I do not see how a surrender could have been avoided. The supplies ordered to Pamplin's Station from Lynchburg could not reach us, and the men, deprived of food and sleep for many days. were worn out and exhausted.
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